To the Norwich Geological Society. 73 
abound. The Liassic and Oolitic limestones are largely devoted to 
cereals and green crops. The chalk areas, where bare of soil, are 
consigned to sheep-walks, while the Tertiary strata and drifts form 
rich agricultural districts. 
When we look more particularly at the soils, we find a direct 
relation between them and the beds beneath. It has been spoken of 
as a sort of agricultural axiom, that the soil follows the contour. 
And when we remember that the strata over the chief agricultural 
districts in England are comparatively horizontal, that the valleys 
expose successive strata beneath, we can readily understand that 
as they follow the contour, the soils must be influenced by the 
subsoils. Indeed, if we take the classifications of soils made by 
agricultural writers, this is apparent. Jor the sake of example. we 
may take the general grouping adopted by Mr. C. 8. Read, M.P. He 
divides Norfolk into five heads:—1. The chalk; 2. Blowing sand; 
3. Stiffer soils; 4. Naturally good soils; 5. Diluvial soils. The 
Chalk is most conspicuous at the surface in West Norfolk. The 
blowing sand corresponds to the Glacial Sands, including the heath- 
land around Thetford, and that in the parishes of Horsford, Fel- 
thorpe, etc. The stiffer soils comprise the Chalky Boulder-clay of the 
country around Tivetshall, Long Stratton, Attleborough, etc. The 
naturally good soils, found chiefly to the north-east of Norwich, corre- 
spond to the Contorted Drift, and form the best land in the county, 
including that around Burlingham, Barton, Stalham, Bacton, and the 
Flegg Hundred. Then we have the diluvial tracts, including the 
fen land and the alluvial meadows of the river valleys. Thus we see 
that this division of soils corresponds to the larger grouping of the 
strata beneath. 
After all, soils in most cases are merely the weathered surface of 
the subsoil, commingled with decayed vegetable and animal matter, 
and they vary in depth according to local circumstances, and 
according as the subsoil is suitable for worms, moles, and other 
burrowing and soil-forming animals. Frequently indeed the subsoil 
is ploughed up, and it is astonishing to see how often masses of 
Chalky Boulder-clay are turned over, appearing quite fresh, when 
one would have expected the calcareous matter to have been dis- 
solved out. The Crag itself is occasionally ploughed up; and, in 
company with Mr. Sothern, I lately saw at Wroxham a furrow 
deeply eroded by rain, which exposed a bed of shells. Between 
Worstead and North Walsham the buff-coloured Glacial Sands are to 
be seen here and there in the ploughed fields, but in these, as in 
other cases, more particularly on the hill-slopes, where the soil is 
liable to be washed away. 
In some cases it happens that the soil is of a boggy and peaty 
nature, or it may be formed chiefly from the relics of a deposit that 
once overspread the district, and which has been almost entirely 
removed by denudation. Such deposits may not be shown on geo- 
logical maps; but from what has been said, the map will in all 
cases be a guide to the nature and capabilities of any tract of 
ground. 
